Archive for the ‘tech’ Category

Head on over to this feature on Architect Magazine’s website to see if there’s a ‘Green Roofs For Healthy Cities‘ seminar on green roof design + construction near your dojo [click the title of this post to follow link].

This week’s Green Tuesday feature is one for all the Do-It-Yourself-ers to take notice of : over at A PreFab Project our ninja Chris has been overseeing/getting involved with the construction of his prefab weekend/vacation home in West Virginia – designed by none other than Resolution: 4 Architecture. Chris seems pretty involved with the construction personally, and has been documenting the entire process – from budget to building – over on his blog.

Blogging the progress on our Res4-designed modern prefab cabin in Lost River, West Virginia. We intend to use the cabin both as a rental and a weekend place, and expect that it will be finished (and available for rent!) by the beginning of August. Please email lostrivermodern AT gmail DOT com with any questions or suggestions.

Ed. Note : Welcome to another installment of our feature ‘Green Tuesday’ here at architecture.MNP This week we welcome back our ninjaAustin, coming at you from Jersey with this really siiick post on a machine that dispenses bikes for temporary use. Say it with me now – My Ninja, Please! Enjoy.

I come to you after a long break of not posting to bring to you ‘The Bike Dispenser‘ (cue music).

Leave it to the Dutch (crazy a$$ ninjas) to come up with something so clever, so green, so cool. Basically its like a giant ‘Pez’ dispenser, dishing out bikes on one end and refilling on the other. Apparently it works like this (I don’t speak Dutch); you pay a small fee (around â‚¬ 2.75 ($3.71) per 20 hours) or, in some cities which have free bike programs its free, you get a bike to use at your leisure. Stroll around as much as you want, return it when you wish to any of the neighborhood Bike Dispensers. Don’t feel like returning it, well you can leave it as is, the bikes are tagged with RFID’s; Bike Dispenser owners/operators can then find the free range bikes about the city and return them to their pens.

Its really ashame that America’s infrastructure in the major metropolitan areas cannot support such fantasies. The car is king and we all must succumb. C’est la vie! Only we as architects can do our part to promote better, healthier means of transportation whenever we have the opportunity.

So, I’m far too cynical to go ahead and whole-heartedly believe Toyota, a car manufacturer, when it says that its aiming for zero emissions and is a sponsor of green design. That being said, the concept makes a whole helluva lot of sense if you think about it: outside of keeping people alive to buy your product, and all that hippy ‘save mother earth’ loudness, doesn’t looking into ‘green’ technologies seem to make sense at this point? Whether or not you believe in global warming and the end of days, fossil fuels are most definitely only available to us in a finite amount – why not prepare ahead of time, instead of waiting until its too late? That doesn’t sound like too crazy of a business plan to me.

Enjoy the videos my ninjas, they’re all pretty interesting [although, those of you well versed in green design trends have probably seen/heard of/read about these products & technologies before].
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptjFh-_BTF4&mode=related&search=[/youtube]

I want to start this post by saying that that ninja Preston over at Jetson Green is NOT to be trifled with, my ninjas – don’t sit on green architecture posts, fellow bloggers, as he WILL get it up first. Damn…

Kookiekrumbles [from the main site] sent me this link on the Windermere West building being designed by Studio Gang, to be built in Chicago. Working with Arup, Studio Gang basically developed a passivesolar strategy where the building’s sawtooth facade shades itself from the harshest sun [high in the sky summertime sun] to save on cooling costs/energy consumption. In contrast, the winter sun [low in the sky] will not be shaded, but instead shine through to warm the condos. Its so simple that I almost feel foolish featuring it…

This isn’t the first time that we here at architecture.MNP have brought you naturallighting solutions – but this product looks to be iller than those that we’ve previously featured. Parans SP2 is a natural lighting solution that utilizes active tracking Fresnel lenses to focus sunlight through a fiber optic delivery system.

A Fresnel lens is a type of lens invented by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel. Originally developed for lighthouses, the design enables the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the weight and volume of material which would be required in conventional lens design. Compared to earlier lenses, the Fresnel lens is much thinner, thus passing more light and allowing lighthouses to be visible over much longer distances [via Wikipedia].

So basically the system uses these lenses to focus sunlight and distribute it throughout the spaces in which the system is installed, through the use of fiber optic cables running through the building. Based on the other product like this one that we had on MNP, and other solar lighting systems I’ve seen/read about, my guess is that this would most likely be a hybrid system, regardless of what the company advertises. But regardless – not only has it been proven that natural lightis better for you, but adding any amount of it to your building’s lighting system is going to reduce your energy consumption, which is always siiick.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGll5N32QnE[/youtube]

Yes, my ninjas, you’re seeing it right – that building is missing its bottom floors. The P&O tower in London is a 15 storey high-rise that was constructed by hanging the floors from a beam at the roof level – which is supported by the core. The building, one of only four in London to be constructed like this [and the first to be taken down] must therefore be demolished from the bottom up. MY NINJAS, PLEASE!!

So, this isn’t terribly interesting, but – as I wrote last week on architecture.MNP’s Green Tuesday – I’m studying up for the LEED exam test and thought that sharing what I find with the MNP massive might be helpful to any of my ninjas out there who are also looking to become a LEED AP.

The proposed structure would be made of polypropylene forms, which could be manufactured in various shapes and sizes – and assembled to form any number of volumes imagined by the inhabitant. A house [or structure for whatever other purpose] could then be easily transported to the desired site, and the interior, transparent, layer of the polypropylene skin could be inflated/filled with water to create the initial form [images above and below]. The waste management system would also be set up, which would [basically] store all household waste – poop included – in a second, opaque, layer of the polypropylene skin, eventually creating solid walls.

It seems as if Maynard even proposes a greywater management system, which would treat the blackwater from the household’s sewage, using it for watering plants on the property, etc, while returning the rest of the waste water to the polypropylene walls.